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“You’re thinking loudly, Hiei.”
Mukuro’s voice cuts through the silence and rouses Hiei from his thoughts. Looking from the table his feet are propped up on to her lounging on her makeshift throne, hands folded in her lap, he scowled. While she seemed composed with not even the slightest sliver of youki slipping free from her control, he was in disarray.
His youki flared, filling the air and heating it to a point that the sentries that stood guard outside of Mukuro’s room fled for cooler corridors. Mukuro didn’t seem put off in the slightest but she opened one eye when Hiei drew his energy back. It was quick but he felt her energy flicker and then disappear.
A telltale sign of one of her barriers. It was likely the only way that she could withstand the heat pouring from him which meant that he’d been lost in his thought long enough for her to need one. Hiei cursed Kurama and hoped the youko was sneezing up a storm from the thoughts ricocheting through his mind. It was the least he deserved for planting such an insane notion in his mind.
Mukuro tips her head back and arches a brow, an amused glint in her eyes as she observes him with interest. Her head lulls to one side, a faint tilt that catches Hiei’s eyes and strengthens his resolve to stay silent. He could hear Kurama’s voice in the back of his mind remarking on how well Mukuro knew him and how alike they were.
“Like mother, like son,” the youko teased and Hiei could hear his joyful laughter ringing in his ears. Brushing thoughts of Kurama aside, Hiei huffed and sank down in his chair with his arms folded across his chest, fingers drumming against his forearm.
It wasn’t true. Of course, they had some similarities and they helped one another on occasion but that was as far as their relationship went. He was Mukuro’s second until he no longer felt the need to be at her side and the only reason that he stayed with her was to find a way to beat her one day.
“Your thoughts are so loud,” Mukuro voices, a soft sigh punctuating her words before she continues. “Were you going to share them or keep them to yourself?”
Hiei’s gaze flicks to her then away. “There’s nothing to tell.”
”Well, I highly doubt that.”
Mukuro unfolds her arms, resting the pad of her thumb beneath her chin, observing him quietly. Hiei stiffens beneath her scrutiny but wills himself not to look at her nor look away. Anything that would give him away is quickly stifled but she seems to find something of interest despite his efforts.
“Is it Kurama?” Mukuro asks, flicking her finger at him. “It’s been a few days since you’ve been to the Ningenkai, are you sure you shouldn’t call him?”
Hiei wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He could have taken it as an out but if he lied to her, there was no doubt that she’d know. And he had called Kurama earlier that morning to remind him to get up. A call that lasted a few hours and nearly made him later for drills but well worth hearing Kurama’s voice.
“Mm, that must not be it,” Mukuro mumbles, rousing Hiei from his thoughts. “You’re always irritable when you don’t talk to him for long.”
“I am not,” Hiei grouses, resting his hands on the chair’s arm rests as he sits up.
Mukuro brushed her fingers along her jaw, barely hiding the twitching in the corner of her lips as she glanced aside. “Yes, yes, of course you’re not.”
Before Hiei could inquire what she meant by that, a loud knock to the door stole their attention and his eyes narrowed at the entryway. The youki beyond it was familiar. Kirin, no doubt. And Hiei rolled his eyes, crossing his arms behind his head as he ignored the presence. The former second in command tended to rub him the wrong way with his habit of interfering and he wouldn’t hesitate to embarrass him in front of Mukuro once more.
“Don’t,” Mukuro mutters, the soft warning accompanied by a look that is parts warm and stern. Her voice raises as she glances toward the door. “Enter.”
Hiei scowls at her and rolls his eyes though he stays his tongue as Kirin opens the doors and walks through. He approaches a few paces, a good foot away from Mukuro and the chair where Hiei sits, kneeling and bowing his head.
“There is a visitor at our border, reports from our scouts mark them as one of Raizen’s companions,” Kirin says. “What would you have us do, Lord Mukuro?”
One of Raizen’s companions? Hiei’s thoughts drifted to Yusuke and he dismissed it. If it was the former detective, he would’ve simply wandered closer to Alaric’s stronghold and greeted them with one of his usual smiles. It had to be one of the late mazoku’s friends, no doubt one that was either strong enough or foolish to be noticed.
Mukuro props up her chin on her hand, a distinctly unbothered expression shifting to one of interest. A smirk curving her lips as she speaks.
“How long ago was it that the report was given?”
“Ten minutes, Lord Mukuro.”
Mukuro chuckles softly and glances toward the doorway. “Then that means she’s already here.”
Hiei sits up straighter and glances toward Kirin. The former second in command lifted his head, an equally confused expression on his face.
“She, my Lord?”
“Yes, yes,” Mukuro sighs, voice quieter as she taps her index finger along the side of her head. “She’s early though. Kirin, escort her here.”
“My Lord —“
It’s in these moments that Hiei sees the faint similarity between Mukuro and Kurama. The commanding presence that begets respect and brokers no disobedience. An arched brow, the slightest tilt of the head, eyes narrowed with a faint sheen of youki outlining the body. Without moving a muscle, they could intimidate and Hiei felt Kirin’s hesitation before he heard the hasty affirmative following his disappearance. The doors shutting, the loud clang echoing in the silence between them.
Mukuro settled back against her pillows, a soft smile gracing her lips, relaxed as if she wasn’t inviting a potential enemy into her room. Hiei almost thought to question her himself but he was curious as to where this would go. And if anything, this distraction would take her mind away from asking him unnecessary things.
Within the next few minutes, another presence approached the doors slowly. The youki was stronger, denser, and eclipsed Hiei’s own to his begrudging admittance. Mukuro sat up, leaning forward and resting her arms on her thighs as she leveled the door with an amused smile.
“Enter,” she calls, and the unbridled excitement in her voice is only tempered by a faux calm that Hiei sees through immediately.
The doors open and a tall woman walked through with a black bag slung over her shoulder. One hand settled on her hip, form-fitting white pants and a sleeveless top reddened around the waist and trimmed with yellow contrasting to her dark brown hair half done in a braid and messily tied back with a magenta bow.
Hiei had to admit that she seemed to have every right to be sure of herself. Though her energy wasn’t wildly professed, she radiated strength and held herself as such.
Never once looking down, not even bothering to check her surroundings, her eyes trained on Mukuro and none else. And with a quick glance aside, Hiei was somewhat amazed to see that Mukuro was the same. Mukuro leant back, resting her cheek against her fist as she observed the newcomer. The glint of amusement in her eyes shifting to something that hiei wasn’t quite sure of.
Though before he could look closer, the newcomer spoke.
“You were expecting me,” she says, not quite an accusation but not a question either, a degree of amusement warming her voice as if speaking to an old friend. “And here I thought I had the element of surprise.”
“I thought we were well past that,” Mukuro mutters, tracing her knuckle along her lower lip before waving her free hand. “And you’re early.”
“Well, you know what they say. You shouldn’t keep the good ones waiting.”
Hiei isn’t sure what he’s bearing witness to but the smile on Mukuro’s face isn’t one that he’s seen her show anyone.
“Where are my manners?” The visitor says, and Hiei realizes that she’s looking at him, magenta eyes taking him in. He’s not sure what she sees but she smiles and nods. “It’s been awhile, Hiei.”
Hiei glances at Mukuro but she gives him nothing to work with and he looks back to the woman, wracking his brain for where he may have seen her before. His first thought is the tournament and he thinks back to the battles fought. Realization dawning on him and he huffs.
“I assume you’re stronger than you were then?”
She chuckles softly and adjusts the bag over her shoulder, glancing at Mukuro before she looks back to him. “That remains to be seen.”
Hiei recoils slightly, glancing from her to Mukuro who smiles behind her fist but says nothing further, her gaze sweeping over the visitor with visible interest. Something didn’t seem quite right.
“How long are you planning to stay?” Mukuro asks, regaining her composure.
Stay?
Hiei tilts his head, looking at Mukuro and opening his mouth to voice his question when the visitor interrupts him.
“A week or two, I could use the training before moving on again,” the visitor looks at Mukuro and tilts her head. “I assume that my room is still as it was?”
“It is.”
Hiei blinks slowly. There’s something in their silence and the double-edged words, meaningful glances that have them keeping one another’s gaze.
“Then I’ll get settled,” the visitor bows her head, stealing a glance at Hiei with a smile that sets him on edge. She turns on her heel and walks to the door, brazen considering that Mukuro hadn’t dismissed her. “If you’re not busy later on, we should have dinner, I’ll tell you about my travels.”
“I would like that,” Mukuro says to Hiei’s surprise, keeping her eyes on the visitor’s back until the doors slid shut behind her.
Hiei waits until her presence disappears down the hall, skillfully making her way through the halls as if she’d walked through them a thousand times before. Slowly, he looked to Mukuro and found her looking back at him with a smile.
“Now, what were we talking about before?”
He should have just stayed home.